Fraud

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on how many occasions staff employed by his Department defrauded his Department in the last 10 years.

Anne McGuire: The Department for Work and Pensions was created in April 2001 and information is held centrally only from April 2003. To try to obtain information for earlier years would be a disproportionate cost. Figures are not yet available for 2007-08.
	Information is not available in the exact format requested but the figures shown in the following table show the number of instances of attempted or actual fraud where the investigation was completed in the year stated, together with the average number of staff in post in each year. The figures relate to all the benefits administered by DWP, theft of assets and financial irregularities:
	
		
			   Employee fraud against the benefits system  Other fraud by employees  Staff in post 
			 2003-04 23 78 130,786 
			 2004-05 4 44 126,988 
			 2005-06 52 99 119,972 
			 2006-07 51 75 114,500